Screenwriting : Industry Standard Formatting by Becca-Chris M

A big thing I learned awhile back are, no large chunks of dialogue. They bore the reader. Try to add descriptive action words to the dialogue to make it more interesting.

Writing in camera angles lol and writing "we see" since the script is a visual transcript we will see everything.

Any action inside parentheticals (wrylies), which should be used almost exclusively for disambiguation about whom is being addressed in a multi-character scene, or about how a line "should" be delivered if not obvious from (or is intentionaly-unexpectedly at odds with) setup, context, or subtext.

Writing it in human feces (not your own). Actually, to add to what Becca said - any big chunks of anything. In real life no one lets the other person just drone on and on without jumping in to say something, so no long blocks of dialogue. Think 4 lines (not 4 sentences, 4 lines on the page) as a "non rule maximum" (hey, 5 lines is fine, and sometimes a person makes a speech like that great Gold Watch story in PULP FICTION... but if you go over 4 lines, think about how much of that is necessary or even realistic... people interject!) The other thing is big blocks of action. Though the average screenplay is around 50% dialogue and 50% action, you want to break up that action into little paragraphs. Not some big dense page of text! And use the idea of paragraphs, just as a novelist does. You want to make the screenplay "easy to read". The biggest problem with screenplays from new writers: not a movie idea. Maybe a nice LAW & ORDER episode....

I dunno, I let my kids drone on and on all the time. Sometimes for whole pages. :-) I think the only truly acceptable "industry standards" that 90% of writers agree on: 1. Courier font (and even this is debated) 2. Capitalize sluglines 3. INT. and EXT. are acceptable abbreviations 4. Margins of the various elements Beyond that, there are formatting guidelines that you can use to make your script more approachable, more readable, more salable. Things that would stand out by just flipping through pages: no dense text, few wrylies. Things that show up when the reader starts to actually read: proper grammar, no typos. Then you get beyond the "formatting" issues and into the "writing" issues. Exposition, no story, et cetera.

Feedback I got from a Stage 32 Consult pointed out that I put too much description in. The exec's exact words were that it kind of read like a novel. He said it still flowed, was easy to understand, and advanced the story - but there was still too much of it. If you've come to screenwriting through another form, like I have, then a professional's eye might be useful to show if you're making this mistake. I thought my work was cut down to the bare bones, but following the advice I still found three pages to lose off a 108 page script.

William - good points on the dialogue. Is it realistic? I must say, some old (black and white era) movies sure went on and on in dialogue- and it worked. Things have definitely changed.

Directing your screenplay, by writing camera directions is the biggest "no, no". Another one and I'm guilty, is writing what a character is thinking, since in screenplays we only write what we see. This has been the hardest thing for me , so it's always on the back of my head when I write. Any suggestions???

Jorge - I think that's it: Remember to only write what is seen. Try to put what the characters are thinking into their actions.

I'm with Bill on the feces thing. OTN writing is a big no-no, as well - can't tell you how many times I've tried to get through a script that actually had some story merit, but because the dialogue was so on the nose it kept throwing me out.

Thanks, Becca, for the advice Great post by the way. Keep them coming.

I'm not sure if a lot of these are "formatting no-no's" or story structuring "do and don'ts" we're discussing here. Either way it's a good discussion. Jorge, I agree, writing what a character is thinking, or describing something that the camera cannot see, is the biggest screenwriting failure. Oh, and also, "plenty of white space" somewhere along the lines of 50/50 or 60/40. Like someone said 'big blocks' of anything can be stressful on the eyes and the brain. The reader is already associating a negative feeling with the page before he even reads it.